


Deep In My Heart There's A Meow

by anysin



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Artist Mabel Pines, Crushes, Cute, F/M, Fanboy Robbie Valentino, Fluff, Older Mabel Pines, References to Modern Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-05 23:08:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15873585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anysin/pseuds/anysin
Summary: Robbie becomes a fan of Mabel's manga.





	Deep In My Heart There's A Meow

The first time Robbie hears about “You’re My Heart, You’re My Meow”, it’s a written summary on a pink post-it note that Robbie finds on the street.

_World has been saved, yay! Now, the witch who tried to destroy it and her two fuzzy kitty familiars need to pay for their crimes, but the capital punishment was abolished a long time ago! So instead, the human is changed into a cat, the cats are changed into humans and they’re all forced to live the life of a normal suburban family. How will it go!_

“What the hell is this?” he asks Candy Chiu, the actual owner of the note, when she comes to fetch it.

“It’s called ‘none of your business’,” Candy says, coolly; Robbie guesses she’s still not over the time his friends threw her Monster-Man fanfics away. “If you absolutely must know, it’s a gift from a friend.”

Robbie absolutely didn’t want to know, but now that she said that, one person immediately pops into his mind. “Mabel Pines wrote that?”

Candy narrows her eyes at him. “If you really have to know, she did, and she did an excellent job of it. It’s going to be a manga.”

“I actually don’t,” Robbie starts to say, but then Candy goes for the jugular:

“It’s going to be way better than any stupid song you have come up with.”

Did she just go there? Well,  _now_  Robbie will have to stop being nice. “At least I have a whole album out! Let’s see if this ever even becomes anything!” he snaps, whirling around on his heels to leave.

“It will and even  _you_  will love it!”

“As if,” Robbie grumbles, walking off. That should be the end of it.

*

Instead, when Mabel finally publishes the first chapter of “You’re My Heart, You’re My Meow” on her art site a few years later, Robbie is the first person to read it. He can tell because according to the hit counter at the top of the page ( _how 90s_ , he thinks derisively), he turns out to be the only person who has even opened the chapter.

Robbie is ready to sneer at how he’s going to be the only visitor ever, even if it’s just to himself.

He ends up writing “good job” in the comment section.

It sneaks on him, “You’re My Heart, You’re My Meow”. Mabel’s friends eventually catch onto the existence of the manga and start spreading the word about it, but by then Robbie is already doing it. His friends find it hilarious, how he has ended up loving the uncoolest thing in the world, but Robbie doesn’t even care. Much.

“Your read a kitty manga, that’s seriously adorable,” Wendy cackles when they’re hanging around in her room one day, and Robbie frowns.

“What? You read it too, I’ve seen you in the comments!”

“You read the comments? Oh man!” She laughs, and while in the past he would have been spellbound by the sight, now he just wants to push her off her bed. “Of course I read it, Mabel is my friend! What’s your excuse?”

Wendy pats him on the back, ignoring how he huffs and broods over how no one understands him.

First of all, “You’re My Heart, You’re My Meow” is not just a basic manga about cats and families. It’s about redemption, loss, accepting the pain of the past and moving on, growing up and coming to terms with your place in the world. It surprises Robbie that he seems to be the only person who realizes this; all others seem to be talk about is the old tomcat’s romantic life and how many puns Mabel is always able to fit in a chapter. It sort of makes him wonder-

“It’s Mabel’s story,” Candy Chiu says when Robbie tries to talk to her about it, still reserved; Robbie guesses she’s still salty about how he got to be the first ever visitor, the first ever commenter, the first ever fan. “She does whatever she wants with it.”

But, he has to wonder: are those themes in the story on purpose? Or is this Mabel’s way of trying to deal with the memories of that one summer that everyone in Gravity Falls remembers?

Robbie knows he’s being a hypocrite, given how much he hates it when people think they have special insight to him because they listen to his music. Well, not that anyone claims that aside from Robbie’s parents, but it still annoys him enough that he tries to not do the same with Mabel. But he can’t help but remember the apocalypse, the giant pink bubble in the sky and Mabel’s heroic, amnesiac uncle, and wonder. And wonder.

Maybe he needs to ask about it one day.

*

It takes few years more for his chance to come, when Mabel comes to Gravity Falls to promote the first published volume of “You’re My Heart, You’re My Meow”.

“Isn’t this exciting?” Candy whispers to him as they stand in the line leading to the bookstore, among hopefuls who are after Mabel’s autograph. Robbie guesses that Candy has finally stopped being mad at him, but he doesn’t understand why she’s waiting in the line; as Mabel’s friend, he’s sure she could get a VIP pass right past the line or something.

He knows he’s not going to get that; he wasn’t  _that_  close to the Pines twins back when they left the town and they haven’t exactly been in close contact ever since. Replies to comments are just that; who knows, maybe Mabel has decided that he belongs to the bad parts of her past, too. Although, would that mean there will be a character based on him eventually?

“Look, there she comes!”

He’s almost too lost in thought to look, but when he does, he sees Mabel Pines appear from the back of the store and head towards her table, smiling and waving to the waiting fans. He can tell she’s still into all shades of pink and likes to wear turtlenecks, and the cat ears on the top of her head don’t seem out of place at all. She hasn’t lost her braces yet, but her smile is just as bright as it was back then.

“Yes, she saw us!” Candy squeaks by his side, shoving him in the ribs when he fails to react. He barely feels it; he’s too busy sweating over the realization that Mabel is indeed looking straight at him, and that she seems to be happy to see him.

He’s not sure when that started mattering to him.


End file.
